Vietnam launches hotline for callers to identify crooked police as crackdown on corruption continues

Vietnam has set up a telephone hotline for people to report accusations of police corruption, state media said on Tuesday, during a crackdown on graft in the Southeast Asian country that has jailed dozens of officials.

A court last Friday sentenced two senior police officials to up to 10 years in prison for running an underground online gambling ring which illegally raised hundreds of millions of dollars.

“Reports will be discounted if providers do not declare their full name, address and telephone number, or supply insufficient, vague or unsubstantiated information,” the official Vietnam News Agency [VNA] said, citing a Ministry of Public Security statement. “They will also be discounted if callers insult the officers on duty.”

Vietnam’s graft crackdown has seen the Communist-ruled government launch investigations into hundreds of public officials accused of mismanagement.

Several executives at state-owned enterprises, including one former politburo member, have been jailed for mismanagement or embezzlement.